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Comment on More than 1,200 games journalists have left the media in the last two years | VGC

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ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

What would the “good version” of this article look like in your opinion? VGC doesn’t have quotas, btw.

The real joke is that the article does not even touch on the degrading quality of the writing and experience

I’ll say that you state that as fact, but it’s a perception that not everyone shares.

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echodot@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

I’ll say that you state that as fact, but it’s a perception that not everyone shares.

I’ve said this in my own top level comment but it’s worth reiterating here to just make the point. Nobody trusts games media anymore and they don’t trust them because they do things like the above screenshot and engage in articles for access, in real journalism stuff like that is supposed to be disclosed. However the only ones that actually ever seem to bother are YouTubers with integrity.

I think the idea that quality is degrading is not a niche opinion by any stretch of the imagination. It’s basically the majority viewpoint of gamers.

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- ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Is it? How do you know?
  
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  - M0oP0o@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    
    I’ll say that you state that as fact, but it’s a perception that not everyone shares.
    
    Not everyone shares the perception that we live on a sphere, what is your point?
    
    This reeks of wilful ignorance to the facts of the state of the media currently.
    
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M0oP0o@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I have old some old magazines that are at least readable with ads that don’t move. This is not a radical take, just like all corporate media the quality has declined in general (not suggesting that there was a lack of bad journalism in the past). Also, they may not have hard quotas there but the writers are paid to make articles and content to fill the site (it is like best buy did not do commission vs future shop but where both the same company and fired those that did not make sales regardless).

As for how to improve this particular article, I would say a good start is to pick a format, is it a op ed or an interview? Or is it a report on events? I would go the op ed direction myself and rely less on the quotes from other journalists and data from the weird internal marketing source. I would have likely incouraged having a message and then sprinkled in actual employment numbers from major publications throughout the article and not done what this one did that was “this program sends out less free codes” as a data point. The data used is too weak for anything other then an opinion piece but the article is too light on the writer’s input to be one.

There is also a big “citation needed” part that should have set off a editor.

“If amateur, part-time, or freelance writers are included, the number of departures from the games media swells to more than 4,000 people since October 2023.”

“If” indeed! They went from 25% down and then if you include free lancers swelling to more then 4,000 people. That’s just sloppy writing. At least give initial numbers and keep the format consistant.

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- ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  
  Also, they may not have hard quotas there but the writers are paid to make articles and content to fill the site (it is like how best buy did not do commission vs future shop but where both the same company and fired those that did not make sales regardless).
  
  The incentives are very different when the writers own the company and are largely paid by monthly subscribers.
  
  There is also a big “citation needed” part that should have set off a editor.
  
  How would you have cited “declining quality of writing” as an inciting factor? How would you measure it? And why did it just become a problem in the past few years rather than any of the problems that are listed in the article?
  
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  - M0oP0o@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    
    How would you have cited “declining quality of writing” as an inciting factor? How would you measure it? And why did it just become a problem in the past few years rather than any of the problems that are listed in the article?
    
    The part I am talking about is below the the part you are quoting. It was a critique on the part that goes:
    
    “According to Press Engine’s database of ‘tier 1’ publications that cover games (which is defined as major websites, both specialist and mainstream, with seven-figure-plus audiences), the global pool of game journalists has declined by 25% in just two years. The vast majority of these departures were from specialist games websites like IGN, Polygon, or Gamepot.
    
    If amateur, part-time, or freelance writers are included, the number of departures from the games media swells to more than 4,000 people since October 2023.”
    
    I am not sure if you are just a touch upset that everyone does not agree that your writer owned slop factory is of high standards or if you just missed the part where I was trying to point out the weak writing as asked. But if I was to “cite” the declining quality of writing, I could do so by referencing old popular articles compared to current ones, I could show screen shots of the ever mounting assault of ads, or I could do what I am doing here and just assume that my audience is not wilfully ignorant of the current state of the format.
    
    You can not out of one side of your mouth state the industry of writing is dying then say out of the other that the writing has not suffered.
    
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    ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    I know you were talking about another part of the article, but you had a similarly uncited reason for the shrinking games media work force. I don’t care if you don’t like VGC, but I really don’t see a time when the writing was better, and I wanted to see what you were expecting.
    
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